


return to sender (he's right here)

by vanillanemo



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Apologies, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel, mentions of the other hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 21:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20513918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillanemo/pseuds/vanillanemo
Summary: Klaus writes a letter that saves the world. And his little sister.





	return to sender (he's right here)

After leaving the rest of the crew around the fire, leaving the very tense atmosphere that had resulted from the earlier argument, they wandered into the tent. Klaus sat down on his cot with a heavy sigh, and Dave sat on his own, across from him, so close their knees nearly touched.

“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked.

"It's just... all that with Sam, it made me realise that, not only am I a shitty person, I'm a shitty brother. My siblings and I... we always left our little sister out, like we were all leaving Sam out. We never played with her, never did our schoolwork with her, never even really spent much time with her. I'm just now realising how she must have felt. How she must still feel. I should have done better. Should have tried to include her, instead of just pushing her away like all the others did."

Dave frowned, before he reached out to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Look man, you can't change what's already happened. It's not like you can travel back in time and slap some sense into your kid self, no more than we can all go back and yell at our younger selves to be nicer to Sam." Klaus smiled wryly at the thought, but the _fucking briefcase wasn't working_.

"Yeah, guess not."

"Mail truck leaves day after tomorrow, maybe you could write to her? You can't undo the damage you already did, but you can start trying to fix it. And when you get home, you can continue to work on your relationship."

“Hmm. Yeah, maybe.”

“Just, have a think about what you’ve got to lose? Cause I’d guess its not much, but there’s plenty to gain.” Dave rubbed his shoulder a little before he let go, and stood up.

“You got stationery?” He asked. “Cause I can go get you some from the supply tent.”

“You don’t have to, I can go myself.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Dave left, and Klaus smiled softly, falling back onto the cot. God, he was head over heels.

***

"Why aren't you in any of these?" Leonard asked with gentle curiosity.

Bitterness swept through Vanya as she looked up at the family pictures, and answered, "It was always about the Umbrella Academy, I just didn't make the cut."

The soft tap of a cane echoed in the hallway, and Pogo rounded the corner, an envelope in his hands.

"Ah, Miss Vanya. I thought that was you I heard."

Leonard gasped softly, but by the time Vanya had turned to look at him, he'd schooled his face into a polite mask.

Well, it makes sense that he'd be shocked. Pogo is entirely normal for her, but most people have never seen anthropomorphic monkeys before.

"Um, Leonard, this is Pogo, Pogo, this is my... friend, Leonard." She hesitated over the label, because she's pretty sure that the people you're having sex with are more than friends, but she also doesn't want to presume anything by calling him her boyfriend. What if he's not okay with that?

Judging by the tightness to Pogo's mouth, he worked it out anyway. But he nodded and said, "It's nice to meet you," anyway, and Leonard returned the greeting calmly.

"Is everything alright?" She asked, and Pogo held out the envelope to her.

It was old, the paper yellowing and brittle. Her name was written on the front in a neat print, and on the back, on the flap, was a warning. "Do not open until March 29th, 2019?" She read aloud, questioningly.

"Your father received this letter in November of 1968, accompanied by an unsigned note. The note explained that, although your father hadn't yet met them, the sender was someone who knew him well and trusted him to ensure this letter reached you at the appropriate date. He made me aware of it some years ago, in case something happened to him before the date had come."

"Someone sent me a letter from 1968?"

Pogo nodded. "After Number Five went missing, your father suspected it might have been from him. The two of you were always close, after all. I'll leave you to it."

He left them behind, and Vanya looked at Leonard with bewilderment.

"Well," he said, "I wasn't expecting that."

"Sorry," she replied, "I probably should have warned you about the monkey butler."

"That's okay. Its normal for you, you probably wouldn't have thought to warn me. That's fine. I didn't... I didn't offend him, did I? I was trying not to stare."

“I don’t think so. He’s pretty easy going.”

She looked down at the letter in her hands. A letter, from 1968? From Five? But he went forward… or at least he thought he did.

"Do you mind if I read this now?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah that's fine. I'll just look at some of this stuff, if that's okay?" He pointed at the display cabinets, and she nodded.

She sat on Mom's chair and carefully opened the envelope.

The handwriting on the letter inside was not the same as was on the envelope, and it _was_ handwriting she recognised.

But it wasn’t Five's.

_27th October, 1968_

_Vanya_

_I’m hoping beyond all hope that dear old Reggie has done the right thing and not opened the letter, but just in case he does, I’ve left a few things ambiguous, so sorry in advance if it’s difficult to understand. Also, I really have no idea how to explain this nicely, so I apologise for the lack of tact. You might want to sit down, if you're not already._

_I stole a thing from these weird people who were torturing me, and when I opened it, it brought me back in time, and also to a different place. It's 1968, and I'm in the Au Shau Valley in Vietnam, stuck serving in the war. For some reason, the thing won't take me back, no matter how many times I've tried._

_I have no idea if I going to survive this war. And if I do survive, I'll still be stuck in the past. The chances of me surviving for fifty years aren't great, especially considering I'm not exactly in prime health. _

_So I might not ever see you again. And there's something I need to tell you._

_I'm a horrible brother. Really, truly, atrocious. And I am so, so, sorry. _

_It shouldn't have taken me being stuck in a war to see, because its so obvious that I don't know how I ever missed it._

_You just wanted to be a part of things, and I should have tried to include you more._

_We'd go out and leave you behind and never thought anything of it and that was so wrong of us. I should have invited you along, I should have offered to paint your nails when I was doing Allison's, and I should have made the others include you too._

_I should have told you that I liked hearing you play, because I did. Even back when you weren't very good at it. _

_And afterwards, after we all moved out, I should have done so much better for you then. I should have come to visit, checked up on you, sent you birthday and Christmas gifts, should have dragged Diego out of his basement and all gone out for brunch or something._

_I should have been there for you, we all should have been._

_I'm so sorry that I wasn't._

_And I'm sorry that I might not ever get to be._

_I know I've never told you this, but I love you, sis. I love you so much, and I want you to be happy, okay? You make sure you're happy._

_Please. For me._

_Klaus_

_P.S. Dear God, don't let anyone make a statue of me. _

She read it once, twice, three times over, and let it sink in.

Klaus went back in time.

Klaus was _stuck_ back in time. 

_Klaus was stuck in the middle of the Vietnam War_ .

They had to get him out.

She stood up, and Leonard turned to look at her, but she hardly paid him any notice, as she ran down stairs to the front sitting room, where she could hear her siblings.

They ha d to save him, and Vanya  was nothing special, she  wa s just  _ordinary_ , but her siblings  _weren't_ , they ha d powers, and training, and what good  was  all of that if they c ouldn’t save Klaus? 

She rounded the corner into the room and stopped dead. Allison, Diego and Luther all looked up at her, a mixture of confusion and exasperation, but she hardly noticed them, her focus on the lounge.

The lounge that Klaus was sitting on, looking a little ill but _alive_, and _here_, and _safe_-

Vanya crossed the room and threw herself into his arms before she even really knew what was happening.

He startled a little, but then relaxed, wrapping his arms around her in a tentative hug.

The tears f e ll before she c ould stop them, and she sob bed into Klaus' shoulder. He h eld her tighter, closer , and she cl ung to him desperately .

Behind them, Allison approache d Leonard, who followed Vanya down, and he explain ed about the letter. There  wa s a certain tone to his voice, coupled with the 'breaking-in-to-deliver-flowers' incident that  reignited her suspici ons , so with a glance back at Vanya, to make certain that she  was occupied, Allison lean t forward.

" _I heard a rumour that you told me exactly what your intentions with my sister are_ ."

Five crash land ed on the bar a minute later, to find Harold Jenkins,  the supposed cause of the apocalypse , pinned to the wall with a knife through his shoulder , Diego and Luther gone, to fetch the notebook, and Vanya crying into Klaus, stung by the fear of almost losing her brother and the betrayal of someone she thought she could trust.

There was an awfully long conversation to follow. A lot of confessions and apologies and promises to try and do better. But in the end, the Hargreeves siblings took their first steps in the right direction, all of them, together, hand in hand.


End file.
